“I believe that Dust is sacred. In that sacredness we are created from it and at the end we are returned to it. Our journey between creation and return is a holy process. On Ash Wednesday, we receive a cross of dust from Ashes to remind us of our beginning, our return, and the discernment we must make for life in between.

I believe we are earth, all made of the same dust that touches each of us. In that moment of connection, we can have the highest form of prayer, a real communication that can change the way we live our life.

I believe we are stardust. We are stars wrapped in skin shining with light that has always been within. Every moment of our life, the Divine is renewing us, showing us what She can do if only we open our hearts and receive Her.

This exhibit is my journey of using the lessons of the dust to teach me that while I really cannot heal my mental illness, the Divine working through my life can open my soul to joy. The reflections are conversations and prayers of the heart that I will see the greater truths of the Divine, that great beginnings start in the dust and the dark and when the light greets me on a new day after the storm, I will realize that I am star dust.”

Candace is a Hartford University for Religion and Peace graduate with a focus on spirituality and worship. She is a member of the Southern New England UCC Disability Ministries Team, a social justice team that promotes accessibility to all, inclusion of people with disabilities and the dismantling of ableism. Candace began using photography as a contemplative practice during COVID after a diagnosis of mental illness. She is a survivor of an acquired brain injury which caused multiple disabilities including deafness and practices the art of receiving and sacred seeing to change the way we see the world including disability.